Newsletter September 2024

Creation

Dear Friends

Like the natural world, where we have the seasons of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, our church year is made up of seasons. We begin with Advent, followed by Christmas, leading into Epiphany, Lent, Easter and so on.

The Season of Creation is marked by many different churches across the world in September. This year as we approach the Season of Creation, in the midst of heatwaves, wild fires and droughts, we have been made acutely aware of how essential it is for us to take appropriate steps to acknowledge and respond to the climate crisis.

The theme for the Season of Creation 2024 is “To hope and act with Creation.” This is not a passive hope but an active one. A hope that is grounded in God’s love for all Creation. A hope that inspires us to pray and act for a better future for all living and non-living parts of God’s Creation.

One way we’re embodying this deep hope at Headingley St Columba is through craftivism. Craftivism is for anyone who wants to make beautiful and useful craft with a message — helping us and others to stop and reflect. As such, we’ve been making flowers to display on our windows. The making and displaying of flowers is a way of highlighting the beauty and diversity of our world and the need to care for it. So, please add to our flowers in whatever way you can.

Peace,
Nicola

Painting of Creation by Sadie Bower

A wee prayer:

God of all hopefulness and joy
as the Season of Creation approaches
enable us to take time to notice signs of hope within creation;
wildflowers blooming on derelict land
species returning to natural habitats once more
days when renewable energy supply outstrips demand.
May these signs of hope prompt us to act –
to uphold the integrity of every living thing within the household of God
to make choices which embody the love we have for our global neighbours
and in all things to give an account of the hope which is within us for all creation.
May it be so. Amen.

(Revd. Lindsey Sanderson, Moderator, National Synod of Scotland, The United Reformed Church)

HARVEST APPEAL 2024

Our Harvest Appeal this year is in support of Zarach, a charity dedicated to raising money to support the estimated 900,000 children living in bed poverty across England.

A Deputy Head Teacher at an inner-city Primary School in Leeds founded the charity in 2017, after being shocked to hear that one of her pupils was living in an unfurnished home with his mother and two siblings. He was always tired and struggled to learn because he was forced to sleep on bed bug infested cushions from an old sofa. Unimaginable circumstances for most of us to find ourselves in.

Zarach collaborates closely with schools and professionals in the community to support affected families to ensure good sleeping arrangements for years to come. They aim to improve a child’s ability to engage at school and to support their physical, emotional, and learning opportunities.

Please let Susan Bollon have your donations (cheques please, if possible) over the coming weeks up to the end of September. Cheques should be made payable to Zarach and Gift Aid forms will be available in the vestibule.

Thank you. Kate Henderson

FAMILY BARBECUE

Join us for our Family Barbeque following our Harvest Festival Service on Sunday, 15th September. All are welcome to this annual event and, once again, we have put in a request for sunny weather – but whatever the outcome it is sure to be enjoyable. Sue Bollon will be putting a notice up in the Hall and if you would like to come it would be helpful if you could sign up to help with catering.

GUILD LUNCH

We were disappointed to cancel our August Lunch but the numbers were smaller than anticipated and most of the staff were on holiday! But we look forward to resuming normal service in September when we invite you to our monthly lunch on Tuesday, 10th September. We shall meet as usual at about 12.30pm for lunch at 1 o’clock. The cost is £4 and all are welcome – just let us know if you would like to come.

At the Church AGM in this year those of us doing ‘this and that’ around the church were asked if we would like to continue doing so in the coming year. Most of us chose to carry on, though occasionally we feel we are running out of steam or ideas. I know I do – and Nicola picking up on this and kindly sent me an email of suggestions; one of which was that I could ask various members of the congregation to tell us a little more about themselves.

On a slightly different take, I thought a ’Something you may not know about me’ article might be interesting. I was sitting with Sandra Barry at a Lent Lunch when she recounted her experiences in Paris. I was full of admiration for this young woman alone in a strange city in the most challenging circumstances and it was heartening to hear of the kindness she met. I thought you might like to hear her story too.

Thank you, Sandra.

France – 1968

After doing a three-year primary teacher training course at Moray House College of Education, which included Primary French, I spent a year from 1967 until 1968 in Meulan , to the west of Paris as an assistante to a complex of three schools – two single-sex schools for boys and girls and one evolving comprehensive. I was given a room in an old school, which was uninhabited apart from myself and another teacher, who spent most of the week away. A dancing school came to the hall downstairs once a week.

The room consisted of a sink with cold water only, a hospital bed, a table and upright chair, so I had to bring all my linen and kitchen utensils from Edinburgh. I bought an electric ring in Meulan for cooking. There was no heating until one of the headteachers gave me a paraffin stove.

I spent my weekends redecorating old people’s homes in Paris with Service Civil International, an organisation founded after the First World War by a Swiss engineer called Pierre Ceresole.

In May the general strike kicked off. I was not in a union, so was not entitled to take part in any activities. I had four pounds and no way of accessing my salary, as the post office was on strike.

If one of the headmasters had not rifled the school petty cash box and entertained me to his family Sunday dinner, I would have not been here to tell the tale.

The railways were on strike, but there was a private bus service to Paris, which took me to the outskirts, then I had to walk to the Latin Quarter to visit my friend there, as the metro was on strike. She told me dire tales of demonstrating students taking shelter with her and her neighbours and being dragged out by the CRS, the riot police.

I once went for a meal, then to see Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. I discovered I had forgotten my umbrella, so went back to the restaurant to get it, but there was a police cordon blocking the way. Someone in the crowd told me to go round the back, so I did and got my umbrella. The cordon seemed a bit pointless. At the beginning of the strike, I went to the British Embassy to ask for advice and they said I could join a group of British people who were being evacuated, but I would have had to leave everything behind. I had spent a fortune buying all my linen and utensils and did not fancy abandoning them, so sat tight.

I got no news from home, as no letters were being delivered. The French radio journalists were on strike, so I had to rely on the BBC World service for news. When I eventually got the back numbers of the Observer, which had been being sent to me before the strike, I found out the details of what had been happening around me!

SANDRA BARRY

From time to time I have been given poems describing in amusing tones the infirmities and disadvantages of growing older – the smile of recognition rather tempered by the knowledge that it is all a bit too close to the truth and perhaps old age is not always a lot of fun! And do you remember the poem by Jenny Joseph ‘When I am an old woman I shall wear purple’, which describes latter years in which you do just as you wish?

Well, here comes an alternative which I find rather tempting; not only fun but also with the sweet tinge of revenge! The language indicates the writer is American (she has kindly released the poem without copyright) but the content is universal.

When I’m An Old Lady
by Joanne Bailey Baxter